With Love And Sadness

SSC1648 2022-03-18

Track List

Prelude - 4:54
First Light - 5:20
An Evolving Alliance - 7:26
End of the Season - 6:26
Precipice - 8:28
An Abandoned Illusion - 1:17
America Revisited - 4:32

Musicians

Matt Slocum - drums
Walter Smith III - tenor saxophone
Taylor Eigsti - piano, fender rhodes
Larry Grenadier - bass

The structure of With Love and Sadness emerged during a trip to the Maine wilderness where Slocumreflected on the seemingly increasing depths of systemic racism in America and the possibilities forchange. In his liner notes for the recording, Slocum writes, “As a result of pandemic-related closures, it wasthe first time my wife and I had traveled in many months. It felt like a new perspective, at least early in thejourney. The shape of this composition outlines the evolution of my reflections throughout the course of thattrip. The primary theme is introduced in the prelude and developed throughout the suite. Although the workjourneys from B minor in the opening two movements to eventually reach D major in the final movement,most of the piece follows a sonic trajectory moving away from optimism, but clinging to a kind of blind hopeand beauty (real or imagined) in our collective potential for change. The final movement, a rearrangementand development of the main theme, is inspired by Pat Metheny’s “Is This America?” It’s my understandingthat Mr. Metheny composed that song as a musical response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Fifteenyears later, I’m not sure that we’ve made a great deal of progress as a society.”

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